Robotic picking line for serialized products

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments are directed to a system for managing an inventory comprising serialized products. A computer system may receive from an intake sensor a first tray identifier describing a first tray present on an intake transport system. The computer system may also associate the first tray identifier with a first serial identifier of a first product unit present on a product transport system and instructing the product transport system, by the computer system, to transport the first product unit to the first tray. Additionally, the computer system may instruct a robot to place the first tray containing the first product unit at a first bin selected from a plurality of robot-accessible bins.

BACKGROUND

Serialized products are products where each unit is described by aunique serial identifier. A product unit's serial identifier may be usedto facilitate activation of the product unit and, in some cases, is alsoused during operation. Network devices, such as mobile telephones, smartphones, net books, mobile modems, etc., are examples of serializedproducts. During the activation process, a network device's serialidentifier is associated with an end user or account. When the networkdevice attempts to access a proprietary or subscription-based network,the device's serial identifier may be utilized to determine whether thedevice is authorized for access (e.g., based on whether the serialidentifier is associated with an account in good standing, based onwhether the associated account provides for the requested service,etc.).

Serialized products may also provide other features including, forexample, theft prevention and product tracking. For theft prevention,each product unit may be stocked in a disabled state. During the salesprocess, the seller may activate the product unit by storing its serialidentifier at a central network location in a manner indicating that theproduct unit is authorized to activate. When an end user attempts toturn the product unit on, the product unit may contact the centralnetwork location. The product unit may turn on only if its uniqueidentifier is indicated to be activated. Because product unit activationtakes place during payment, an unauthorized user of the unit (e.g., athief) may not be able to use it. For product tracking, a uniqueidentifier may be used to monitor the life of a product unit including,for example, sales to an end user, repair instances, returns, etc.

It is important for retailers of serialized products to match eachpurchaser or end user with a specific product unit. For example, an enduser of a mobile telephone must be provided with the specific mobiletelephone unit that was activated on the end user's account. Otherwise,the end user's mobile network carrier will not recognize the mobiletelephone as being associated with the end user's account. Also, the enduser of a theft-protected product must be provided with a product unitthat has been activated at the central network location. Otherwise, theend user will not be able to use the product unit.

Product and end user matching can be relatively simple at a retaillocation where the serialized products are physically in-stock. Forexample, a retail clerk may pick a product unit from stock to initiateactivation. Activating the product unit may involve initiating acontract between the end user and a network service provider, adding theproduct unit to an existing service provider account, marking theproduct unit as activated at a central network location, etc. Theactivation may be performed by the retailer or a separate activationentity (e.g., a mobile network or service provider). If the activationis successful, then the picked product unit may be sold to the end user.If the activation fails, the clerk can physically return the unit tostock. According to this example, however, the end user must buy theproduct at a physical store location. Also, the retailer must carryenough product stock at each retail location to satisfy all potentialend users at that location, or risk losing business.

Warehouse-based sales of serialized products overcome some of theshort-comings of in-stock retailing. For example, retailers that sellserialized products from a warehouse may not need to keep as muchin-store inventory. Also, warehouse-based sales may eliminate the needfor purchasers to buy serialized products at physical store locationsaltogether. Internet, mail-order, telephone and other communicationstechniques may be used. In addition to these advantages, however,warehouse-based sales of serialized products introduce enormouscomplexities and problems of their own. For example, a single warehousetypically services multiple retail locations and/or on-line retailers,resulting in much higher sales volume than a single physical storelocation. It is much more difficult to match a product unit to an orderas the number of product units in-stock and the number of ordersincrease. Accordingly, systems and methods are needed to control andscale the process of serialized product inventory management.

FIGURES

Various embodiments of the present invention are described here by wayof example in conjunction with the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a computerizedsystem for managing an inventory comprising serialized products.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a basic datastructure that may be used by the product reservation system fordescribing the inventory.

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow executed by thesystem of FIG. 1 to receive and process an order for a serializedproduct.

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4A illustrates another embodiment of the system of FIG. 4comprising multiple warehouses.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow executed by thesystem of FIG. 4 to receive and process an order for a serializedproduct.

FIG. 5A is a chart illustrating one embodiment of a hierarchy ofcustomer units.

FIG. 5B illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of the maintenanceinterface illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of the warehousefacility shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow that may be executedby the warehouse control system shown in FIG. 1 to fulfill an orderspecifying at least a non-serialized product and at least one serializedproduct stored at a robot-accessible bin.

FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 illustrate one embodiment of a generalized processflow for fulfilling orders at a warehouse facility or facilities thatcomprise robot accessible bins, non-serialized product bins,non-reserved serialized product bins and manual serialized product bins.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a floor area ofa warehouse facility comprising a robotic picking line.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of a portion of the floor area ofFIG. 11 showing a robot arm in additional detail.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of the intake station of the floorarea of FIG. 11.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow for inductingproduct units into the robot accessible bins via the intake station.

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow for picking,packing and shipping an order specifying a serial product unit.

DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for managing anddistributing an inventory including serialized products. Each unit of aserialized product may be described by a unique serial identifier. Theserial identifier of a product unit may be associated with the productunit itself (e.g., an International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI)or other serial number). In addition, or instead, a product unit'sserial identifier may be associated with a potentially removablecomponent of the product unit. For example, the product unit's serialidentifier may comprise a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) number orMedia Access Control (MAC) address associated with a card or otherhardware or software installed in the product unit. In some embodiments,a product unit's serial identifier may comprise both a portionassociated with the unit itself and a portion associated with a unitcomponent. For example, the serial identifier of some network devicesmay comprise both a SIM number and an identifier specific to the unit.

In some embodiments, the inventory may also comprise non-reservedproducts. Non-reserved products may comprise non-serialized productsand/or non-reserved serialized products. Non-serialized products mayinclude any sort of product that either does not have a unique serialidentifier, or does not require that specific product units be matchedwith end users. For example, in the context of mobile phone sales,non-serialized products may include accessories such as chargers, earpieces, etc. Non-reserved serialized products may be serialized productsthat are stocked for sale without activation. For example, somepurchasers of serialized products may activate the serialized productunits after purchase, eliminating the requirement that individualproduct units be matched with individual end users at the time ofpurchase.

The inventory may be stored at one or more warehouse facilities. Eachwarehouse facility may comprise a plurality of inventory bins, whereeach bin connotes any specific location where inventory may be stored.For example, a bin may refer to a physical container for holding productitems and/or simply to a location on a shelf. One or more of thewarehouse facilities may comprise a robot or other automated pickingunit configured to place product units at and retrieve product unitsfrom the inventory bins. The operation of the robot, and of otheraspects of the warehouse facilities, may be directed by a computerizedwarehouse control system or other suitable computer system or systems.According to various embodiments, at least a portion of the inventorybins for serialized products may be configured to hold a single productunit such that there is a one-to-one relationship between a serializedproduct unit and a corresponding inventory bin.

The inventory may be managed and/or tracked by a computerized productreservation system. The product reservation system may monitor thestatus and location of each serialized product unit of the inventory andmay handle orders for product units. Orders may be received fromcomputerized requesting systems. For example, the product reservationsystem may receive, directly or indirectly, from a requesting system anorder specifying a first serialized product. If a unit of the firstserialized product is available, the product reservation system mayreserve the unit and provide the unit's serial identifier to therequesting system. The requesting system may subsequently confirm orrelease the order. For example, the requesting system may utilize theproduct unit's serial identifier to attempt to activate the productunit. If the identified product unit is successfully activated, therequesting system may confirm the order. If the identified product unitis not successfully activated (e.g., the end user's contract isdeclined, the end user decides not to complete the transaction, etc.),then the requesting system may release the order. It will be appreciatedthat activation may be performed by the requesting system or by aseparate activation entity (e.g., a service or network provider). Uponconfirmation, the warehouse control system may pick the reserved productunit and provide the unit to the customer and/or end user (e.g., shipthe product unit to the customer or end user). For example, theautomated picking unit may pick the reserved product unit from a knowninventory bin. If the order is released, the product reservation systemmay release the reserved product unit, making it available foradditional orders. It will be appreciated that the activation processmay be transparent to the product reservation system and/or thewarehouse control system.

According to various embodiments, the systems and methods describedherein may be utilized by a distributor entity to make the inventoryavailable to be sold to and/or by one or more customer entities (e.g.,and units thereof). For example, orders for serialized products mayoriginate from purchasers through a customer entity. The customer entity(e.g., via a requesting system) may generate the order based on thedesired purchase of its purchaser. Once the order is provided to thewarehouse distributor entity, it may be filled as described herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a computerizedsystem 100 for managing an inventory comprising serialized products. Thesystem 100 may comprise various computer systems including, for example,a product reservation system 102 and a warehouse control system 104. Theproduct reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104may be in communication with one or more warehouse facilities 106. Thewarehouse facilities 106 may comprise inventory bins 110 for storingproduct units making up the inventory. In some embodiments, warehousefacilities 106 may comprise packing and/or shipping facilities 112 forpreparing orders. Also, according to various embodiments, some or all ofthe warehouse facilities 106 may comprise one or more robots or otherautomated picking units 108 for placing product units to and retrievingproduct units from the inventory bins 110. The robot or robots 108 maybe in communication with one or more data stores 119 for storing data.

The robot 108 may be or comprise any suitable type of automatedpick-and-place device. For example, the robot 108 is described herein asa robot arm 1226 that is slidable on a rail 1204 to place and removeproduct units at robot-accessible bins locations 1114, 1116 (See FIGS.11-12). According to various embodiments, such a robot 108 may beobtained from WYNRIGHT INTERLOGISTICS of Elk Grove, Ill. It will beappreciated, however, that the robot 108 may comprise any other type ofautomated picking device configured to respond to commands in the mannerdescribed herein to store and retrieve product units. Examples of otherknown automating picking devices include, automated fork lifts,automated shelving units, automated carrousel systems, automatedmini-loaders, automated vacuum delivery systems, automated sorters, etc.

The product reservation system 102 may track and/or manage theinventory. For example, the product reservation system 102 may track andmaintain data describing the status of product units included in theinventory. The data may be stored, for example, at one or more datastores 116. The product reservation system 102 may track the status ofall products in the inventory or, in various embodiments, may track thestatus of serialized products only. FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagramof one embodiment of a basic data structure 200 that may be used by theproduct reservation system 102 for keeping data describing theinventory. The data structure 200 is described to illustrate the typesof data that may be kept by the product reservation system 102 regardingthe status of the inventory.

According to the example data structure 200, each unit of serializedproducts 202 may be individually assigned a status and activationinformation. For each serialized product unit, the data structure 200may indicate a product (220), a unique serial identifier (222), aninventory bin 110 where the product unit is located (224) a status (226)and activation information (227). The activation information (227) maydescribe the activation process including, for example, an activationentity for activating the product unit, a status of an activation of theproduct unit, etc. It will be appreciated that although the activationprocess may be managed by the requesting system 114 or separateactivation entity, in some embodiments, the product reservation system102 or other component of the system 100 may manage and/or performactivation. According to various embodiments, each indicated inventorybin 110 may comprise only one product unit, or may comprise multipleproduct units. Also, in embodiments utilizing the robot 108, the robot108 may have a plurality of assigned inventory bins 110, and may placeand retrieve product units at its assigned inventory bins 110 in amanner that is transparent to the product reservation system 102. Forexample, the data structure 200 kept by the product reservation system102 may simply indicate that the corresponding product unit is at aninventory bin 110 assigned to the robot 108.

The status 226 of a product unit may generally indicate whether theproduct unit may be used to fulfill orders. For example, a product unitmay be indicated as “available” if it is in-stock and is not currentlypromised to an existing order. The product unit may be indicated asun-available if it is in-stock and assigned to an existing order. Invarious embodiments, the status 226 may indicate gradations ofavailability and unavailability. For example, a product unit that isassigned to an order that has not yet been confirmed or released may beindicated as reserved. If the order is confirmed (e.g., if serializedproduct activation was successful), then the status of the product unitmay be indicated as confirmed or reserved-confirmed, while the productunit remains in-stock. If an order is released (e.g., if the serializedproduct activation is unsuccessful or the purchaser decides not tocomplete the purchase), the status 226 of the product unit may bereturned to available. In various embodiments, if an order is cancelledwithout being released by the requesting system 114 (e.g., indicatingthat an internal event caused order cancellation), then the status 226of the product unit may be indicated as quarantined until the integrityof the product unit can be confirmed. Confirming the integrity of theproduct unit may comprise, for example, visually inspecting the productunit, electronically scanning the product unit for physically integrity,manually or automatically verifying that the product unit is associatedwith the correct serial identifier at the product reservation system102. This may prevent potentially defective or mislabeled product unitsfrom being used to fulfill future orders. According to variousembodiments orders may released and/or confirmed either partially orcompletely. For example, a partial confirmation or release maycorrespond to less than all of the product units indicated by the order.

According to various embodiments, the product reservation system 102 maymanage non-reserved products such as non-serialized products andnon-reserved serialized products in addition to serialized products.Accordingly, the example data structure 200 may also include entries fornon-serialized products 204 and non-reserved serialized products 206.Because non-serialized and non-reserved serialized products need not beuniquely delivered to end users, it may not be necessary to track uniqueinformation about each non-serialized or non-reserved serialized productunit. Accordingly, the example data structure 200 need only comprise oneentry for each product type (although multiple entries for a singlenon-serialized or non-reserved serialized product type may be used insome circumstances). For each product type, the example data structure200 may indicate a product name (228), a quantity of the productin-stock (230) and an inventory bin or bins 110 where units of theproduct are located (232). If there are multiple inventory bins 110comprising units of the product, then a quantity of product units ineach inventory bin 110 may also be indicated.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the warehouse control system 104 may managethe operations of the warehouse facility 106. For example, the warehousecontrol system 104 may manage the intake of new product units including,for example, new serialized product units. Intake may comprise receivingnew product units and placing the product units at inventory bins 110.The warehouse control system 104 may also manage the fulfillment ofconfirmed product orders. Fulfillment of a confirmed order may comprisepicking product units, including specific serialized product units, tocomplete an order. In some embodiments, fulfillment of an order may alsocomprise packing and/or shipping the order utilizing packing/shippingfacilities 112, performing quality control, etc. The warehouse controlsystem 104 may manage the operations of the warehouse facilities 106 ina manual automated or mixed manner. According to manual methods, productpicking may be performed manually. The warehouse control system 104 maygenerate intake and/or pick instructions and, in various embodiments,may also receive reports of intake and/or picking progress (e.g., scansindicating product location). According to automated methods, thewarehouse control system 104 may utilize the robot 108 to perform intakeand/or picking. Data used to execute the functionality of the warehousecontrol system 104 may be stored at one or more data stores 117. Thewarehouse control system 104 may be comprised of various custom and/oroff-the-shelf components. For example, according to various embodiments,the warehouse control system 104 may utilize a third party warehousemanagement system such as the RADIO BEACON product available fromACCELLOS of Colorado Springs, Colo.

In various embodiments, the product reservation system 102 and/orwarehouse control system 104 may be in communication with a computerizedenterprise resource planning (ERP) system 118. The ERP system 118 may beany suitable system for managing business operations including, forexample, assets, inventory and accounting functions. According tovarious embodiments, the ERP system 118 may be in electroniccommunication with one or more data stores 122, storing businessentity-related information. Example ERP systems are available fromORACLE, JD EDWARDS and SAP. The ERP system 118 may maintain inventorystatus records, but in the context of business and accounting rules. Forexample, the status of a product unit in the ERP system 118 may changeonly upon a change of the unit's business or accounting status (e.g.,when a payment is owed, when physical stock is assigned to a confirmedorder, etc.). Reserving a product unit for an un-confirmed order may notbe such an event. Accordingly, the inventory status data maintained bythe ERP system 118, may indicate that a product unit is available untilthe product unit is assigned to a confirmed order. In some embodiments,the ERP system 118 may also be in communication with a customer ERPsystem 120. The customer ERP system 120 may be implemented by a customerbusiness entity that purchases product units from the inventory. The ERPsystem 118 may be in communication with the customer ERP system 120 toexchange information regarding pending and completed orders for productunits from the inventory.

A maintenance interface 130 may be implemented by one or more of thesystems 102 104, 106, 118 of the system 100 and may allow various usersto access and maintain the various components of the system 100.According to various embodiments, the product reservation system 102,warehouse control system 104, warehouse facility 106, and ERP system 118may be implemented by a single business distributor business entity 101(e.g., a warehouse and distribution entity). It will be appreciated,however, that the functionalities of the components comprising thesystem 100 may be distributed across more or fewer business entitiesaccording to any suitable configuration. Also, according to variousembodiments, all or a portion of the functionality of the productreservation system 102 and/or warehouse control system 104 may beimplemented by an enterprise resource planning system, such as 118.

The requesting system 114, shown in FIG. 1, may originate ordersdirectly or indirectly to system 100 (e.g., via the product reservationsystem 102, the ERP system 118, etc.). The requesting system 114 may beconfigured in any suitable form. For example, according to variousembodiments, the requesting system 114 may comprise a software front end(such as a Web-based front end) provided by the distributor entity 101to customers for receiving product orders. Also, according to variousembodiments, the requesting system 114 may comprise a software front end(such as a Web-based front end) specific to a customer business entity,or unit thereof, for transferring product orders from the customerbusiness entity to the product reservation system 102. For example, theproduct reservation system 102 may operate according to a definedcommunication interface. Requesting systems 114 may be designed byvarious parties to communicate with the product reservation system 102,the ERP system 118 or both via the defined interface. According tovarious embodiments, the requesting system 114 may also manage theproduct unit activation process, either directly or via a separateactivation entity (not shown). Although only one requesting system 114is shown, it will be appreciated that multiple requesting systems 114may be in contact with and providing orders to the system 100 (e.g., viathe product reservation system 102 and/or inventory interface system 124shown in FIG. 4).

According to various embodiments, the requesting system 114 may be aconsumer-facing interface deployed by the distributor entity 101 and/ora customer business entity or unit thereof. For example, the customerbusiness entity, or unit thereof, may act as a retailer, sellingproducts from the inventory through a requesting system 114 that may bebranded for the customer business entity or unit. When a purchaserorders a product from the inventory, the customer business entity orunit may purchase the product from the distributor entity 101 and thenre-sell the product to the purchaser. The requesting system 114 may bemade available to potential purchasers according to any suitable methodincluding, for example, via the Internet, via a kiosk present at aretail location, etc. Potential purchasers may use the requesting system114 directly to view the inventory and place orders. When a potentialpurchaser views a product from the inventory, for example, therequesting system 114 may make an availability request to the productreservation system 104 and display to the potential purchaser whetherthe viewed item is available and, in various embodiments, how many unitsare in-stock. In some embodiments, the requesting system 114 may beintended for use by a clerk, employee or agent of the customer businessentity. For example, a potential purchaser may come into contact withthe clerk at a retail location. The clerk may facilitate the potentialpurchasers' order of a serialized product utilizing the requestingsystem 114. It will further be appreciated that, in some embodiments,the requesting system 114, as shown, may be omitted and orders may bereceived by the product reservation system 104 directly from a customerERP 120. For example, the customer ERP 120, or other order originatingdevice, may be generally referred to as the requesting system.

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow 300 executed by thesystem 100 to receive and process an order for a serialized product. Theprocess flow 300 is illustrated with five rows 302, 304, 306, 308, 310.Each row corresponds to a component of the system 100 and actions ineach row may be performed by the corresponding system component. Row 302may comprise actions of the requesting system 114. Row 304 may compriseactions of a transaction coordinator. The transaction coordinator may bea software package executed by the product reservation system 102, thewarehouse control system 104, the ERP system 118 or any other computersystem to facilitate communications between the various computersystems. Row 306 may comprise actions of the product reservation system306. Row 308 may comprise actions of the ERP system 118. In addition,row 310 may comprise actions of the warehouse control system 104. Itwill be appreciated that, in various embodiments, the actions shown bythe process flow 300 may be performed by systems other than thoseindicated in FIG. 3.

At 312, the requesting system 114 may send an order to the productreservation system 102. The order may indicate at least one serializedproduct. The order may be received by the product reservation system102, for example, via the transaction coordinator. In response to theorder, the product reservation system 102 may identify an available unitof the indicated serialized product. The available unit may bephysically located at a warehouse facility 106. Provided that a unit ofthe serialized product is available, the product reservation system 306may reserve the unit at 314. For example, the product reservation system102 may change the status of the unit from available to unavailable(e.g., at data store(s) 116). Because the product unit is not yetassigned to a confirmed order, it may still be indicated as available bythe ERP system 118. An indication of the unit's serial identifier may beprovided to the requesting system 114. The requesting system 114 mayutilize the serial identifier to activate the reserved product unit, forexample, as described herein.

According to various embodiments, the system 100 (e.g., the productreservation system 102) may comprise functionality for implementingbusiness rules for determining whether to reserve available units of aproduct for an order and/or whether to indicate available products inresponse to an availability request. There may be circumstances wherethe distributor entity 101 will not reserve additional units of aserialized product, even if those units are available (e.g., in-stockand not reserved to any other orders). For example, for some products(e.g., new or popular products) different customer business entitiesand/or units thereof may be allocated a threshold number of productunits or a limited number of product units over a given period of time.The threshold may be defined by a catalog associated with the customerbusiness entity or unit. If an order from a customer business entity orunit exceeds the threshold number of product units, the order may berefused. Likewise, if a business entity's threshold has been exceeded,an availability request from a requesting system 114 associated with thebusiness entity may indicate that no units are available. The thresholdsassigned to different customer business entities and units may bedetermined according to any suitable methods. In some embodiments,thresholds may be set based on contracts between a customer businessentity and the distributor entity 101 and/or based on the level ofbusiness provided to the distributor entity 101 by the customer businessentity. For example, customers that regularly purchase large quantitiesof the inventory may be given higher thresholds. In various embodiments,customer business entities may be divided into tiers (e.g., based onhistoric purchase levels). Customer business entities in a common tiermay have the same thresholds for one or more products. A customerbusiness entity or unit's tier may be indicated, for example, in theentity or unit's catalog.

Additional business rules may be based on the popularity of certainproducts. For example, certain products may be assigned a limitedsell-through rate (e.g., based on popularity). The sell-through rate maybe specific to a business entity or unit, or may generally apply to allcustomer entities or units. In this way, the distributor entity 101 maymaintain the stock of a given product despite its popularity. If anorder would cause a product to exceed the desired sell-through rate,either generally or for the requesting customer business entity or unit,then it may be denied and/or delayed. Also, business rules may be basedon order size. The system 100 may be configured to refuse ordersspecifying a number of serialized units exceeding a predetermined size.Finally, some business rules may be based on the credit rating of acustomer entity or unit thereof. If a customer entity or unit does nothave a certain credit level, orders from that customer entity or unitmay be denied.

The requesting system 114 may send a confirmed order at 316. Forexample, the confirmed order may be sent if the activation of thereserved product unit is successful. In various embodiments, theconfirmed order may originate from the customer ERP system 120. Thetransaction coordinator, at 318, may forward the confirmed order to theproduct reservation system 102. At 320, the product reservation system102 may update the status of the product unit based on the confirmedorder. For example, the product reservation system 102 may change thestatus of the order to indicate that the product unit has been reservedto a confirmed order. The transaction coordinator, at 322, may alsoindicate the confirmed order to the ERP system 118. At 324, the ERPsystem 118 may mark the product unit as unavailable. In addition, theERP system 118 (or the product reservation system 102) may instruct thewarehouse control system 104 to pick and ship the order (e.g., bygenerating a pick instruction or instruction as described herein). At328, the warehouse control system 104 may manage picking of the order.

At step 330, the warehouse control system 104 may manage shipment of theorder and may indicate shipment to the ERP system 118. The ERP system118 may record the order as shipped at 332. According to variousembodiments, the ERP system 118 may write shipping information (e.g.,data shipped, address shipped to, etc.) to a data store (or locationthereof) accessible to other components of the system 100 at 334. At336, the shipping information may be sent as a confirmation. Theconfirmation may be sent by the transaction coordinator, the productreservation system 102, the ERP system 118, the warehouse control system310 or any other suitable component of the system 100. The system 100and process flow 300 are described with the use of a separate ERP system118. It will be appreciated, however, that the systems and methodsdescribed herein may be practiced without an ERP system 118. Forexample, the functionality ascribed herein to the ERP system 118 may beperformed by one or more of the product reservation system 102, thewarehouse control system 104 or any other component of the system 100.

The process flow 300 illustrated in FIG. 3 shows a scenario where anorder is confirmed, picked and shipped. It will be appreciated, however,that there are scenarios where an order, sent at 312, is not ultimatelyconfirmed, picked and shipped. For example, when the requesting system114 receives the serial identifier corresponding to the reserved productunit (e.g., after 314), it may initiate an activation of the productunit on behalf of an end user. The end user may be the purchaser orother person or entity that is the intended user of the product unit.For example, when the product is a theft-secured item, the end user maybe the individual who is purchasing the product unit. Also, for example,when the product is a mobile telephone or other network device, the enduser may be the individual who will use the network device. The end usermay be the purchaser of the product unit or may receive it from anintermediate purchasing party (e.g., an employer). Provided that theactivation is successful, the requesting system 114 may confirm theorder and the process flow may continue as shown in FIG. 3. If theactivation is unsuccessful, however, the requesting system 114 may senda release of the order, instead of the confirmed order. Upon receipt ofthe release, the product reservation system 102 may mark the status ofthe identified product unit as available. According to variousembodiments, a product unit may be maintained in a reserved state for alimited period of time. If an order is not confirmed within the limitedperiod of time (e.g., if the product unit remains reserved), then theproduct unit may be released and marked as available.

According to various embodiments, it may be possible for an order tofail during processing by the systems of the selling distributor entity101 (e.g., at the product reservation system 102, the warehouse controlsystem 104 and/or the warehouse facility 106). For example, the productreservation system 102 may refuse an order if no units of the orderedproduct are available. It is also possible for an order to fail duringpacking and/or shipping (e.g., if the identified product unit isdamaged, etc.). For example, when an order is failed by the systems ofthe selling distributor entity 101, it may indicate an error associatedwith the product unit or units (e.g., a physical defect in the unit, anincorrectly scanned or entered serial identifier, etc.). In variousembodiments, when an order fails during processing of the systems of theselling distributor entity 101, the product reservation system 102 maybe configured to mark the status of the product unit or units causingthe failure as quarantined. The quarantined status of a product unit maybe removed upon verification of the unit's status. It will beappreciated that the communication and utilization of the unit's statusmay be conveyed by one or more systems in communication with the productreservation system.

The process flow 300 illustrates the handling of an order comprising asingle serialized product unit. It will be appreciated that the system100 may also handle orders that comprise multiple serialized products,non-serialized products, and/or non-reserved serialized products. In acase where the order comprises multiple serialized products, the processflow 300 may be performed similar to the manner shown in FIG. 3. Uponreceiving the order, the product reservation system 102 may reserve allrequired product units at 314. Provided that activation of allidentified product units is successful, the requesting system 114 mayconfirm all serialized products in the order at 316. The remainingactions of the process flow 300 may be performed as indicated with eachaction being performed on each of the identified product units. In theevent that one or more of the identified product units cannot besuccessfully activated or is otherwise cancelled, the requesting system114 may cancel the entire order, prompting the product reservationsystem 102 to release all of the identified product units.Alternatively, the requesting system may send a partial confirmed orderand a partial release. The product reservation system 102 may fill theportion of the order that is confirmed and release the identifiedproduct units corresponding to the partially released portion of theorder.

It will also be appreciated that the order may indicate non-serializedproducts or non-reserved serialized products. According to variousembodiments, the order may indicate whether each non-serialized ornon-reserved serialized product request is conditioned upon confirmationof a serialized product request or is independent. If a request isindependent, then the portion of the order corresponding to thenon-serialized product or the non-reserved serialized product may beforwarded to the ERP system 118 and/or warehouse control system 104 forpicking and shipping upon receipt. If the request is dependent, then itmay be held until the associated serialized product request isconfirmed. According to various embodiments, when an order specifiesmore than one product unit, it may be filled from multiple warehousefacilities 106. For example, if a first product unit from the order isonly in-stock at a first warehouse facility 106 and a second productfrom the order is only in-stock at a second warehouse facility 106, thenunits of the products may be picked and shipped from the respectivewarehouse facilities 106 where they are in-stock.

It will be appreciated that the product reservation system 102 maycomprise additional functionality as well. For example, the productreservation system 102 may respond to availability requests from therequesting system 114. The requesting system 114 may direct anavailability request to the product reservation system 102. The productreservation system 102 may respond with an indication of whether unitsof the product are available.

According to various embodiments, the functionality attributed to theproduct reservation system 102, the warehouse control system 104 and theERP system 118 may be distributed among the systems 102, 104, 118, etc.,in any suitable manner. Also, although the systems 102, 104, 118, etc.,are illustrated in FIG. 1 as separate systems, it will be appreciatedthat, in practice, these systems 102, 104, 118 may be implemented havingmore or fewer system components than are shown. For example, in variousembodiments, the functionality of the product reservation system 102 andwarehouse control system 104 may be implemented by a single computersystem. Also, in various embodiments, the functionality of the productreservation system 102 and warehouse control system 104 may bedistributed among more than two computer systems.

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternate embodiment 100A of the system 100. Thesystem 100A may operate in a manner similar to that of the system 100described above, but may distribute the functionality of the system 100among various components in a manner different from that shown inFIG. 1. For example, the system 100A may comprise an inventory interfacesystem 124. The inventory interface system 124 may be logicallypositioned between customer entity systems (e.g., the requesting system114, the customer CRP 120) and the distributor entity 101 systems (e.g.,the ERP system 118, the product reservation system 102, etc.). Theinventory interface system 124 may be in communication with one or moredata stores 126. According to various embodiments, the inventoryinterface system 124 may receive orders, order confirmations,availability requests, etc., from the requesting system 114. Theinventory interface system 124 may also serve as an intermediary betweenthe customer ERP system 120 and the ERP system 118. In this way, theproduct reservation system 102, ERP 118 and warehouse control system 104of the distributor entity 101 may be insulated from customer access.According to various embodiments, this may allow the system 100A tocontinue to receive orders and order-related information when one ormore of the other system components are down (e.g., due to an error,maintenance, etc.). Also, in the system 100A illustrated in FIG. 4, theproduct reservation system 102 may communicate directly with systems atthe warehouse facility 106, for example, to manage the fulfillment ofserialized products.

As shown in FIG. 4, the system 100A may comprise more than one warehousefacility 106. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a single inventoryinterface system 124, ERP 118, product reservation system 102 andwarehouse control system 104 may be programmed to manage multiplewarehouse facilities 106. For example, the inventory bins 110, packingand shipping components 112, etc. of each warehouse may be consideredtogether by the various systems 102, 104, 118, 124. For example, eachwarehouse component (bin 110, robot 108, packing/shipping component 112,etc.) may have an associated location corresponding to the warehousefacility 106 where the component is present. Instructions from thevarious systems 102, 104, 118, 124 regarding the component may bedirected to the appropriate location/warehouse facility 106. FIG. 4Aillustrates another embodiment of the system 100A comprising multiplewarehouses 170, 172. Each warehouse 170, 172 may comprise a separate ERP118, product reservation system 102, warehouse control system 104 andwarehouse facilities 106. A single inventory interface system 124 maymanage both warehouses 170, 172. For example, the inventory interfacesystem 124 may direct orders, or portions of orders, to the appropriatewarehouse 170, 172. For example, if an order requests a productavailable at warehouse 170 and not at warehouse 172, the order may bedirected to warehouse 170. Also, for example, if an order recites afirst product available at warehouse 170 and a second product availableat warehouse 172, the inventory interface system 124 may split the orderaccordingly.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow 100 executed by thesystem 100A of FIG. 4 to receive and process an order for a serializedproduct. The process flow 500 is illustrated with six rows 502, 504,506, 508, 510, 512. Actions shown in row 502 may be performed by therequesting system 114. Actions shown in row 504 may be performed by theinventory interface system 504. Actions shown in row 506 may beperformed by the ERP system 118. Actions shown in row 508 may beperformed by the product reservation system 102. Actions shown in row510 may be performed by the warehouse control system 510. Actions shownin row 512 may be performed by the robot 108. Although the entityperforming each action of the process flow 500 is identified, it will beappreciated that the actions may be distributed among the variouscomponents and systems in any suitable way.

At 514, the requesting system 114 may generate an availability request.The availability request may be generated, for example, when a customeragent or potential purchaser requests a portion of the requesting system114 interface corresponding to a particular product. The availabilityrequest may be received by the inventory interface system 124, at 516.In turn, the inventory interface system 124 may forward the availabilityrequest to the ERP system 118 at 518 and to the product reservationsystem 102 at 520. The ERP system 118 may reply to the availabilityrequest by indicating where its records show any units of the requestedproduct in-stock. As described above, the status kept by the ERP system118 may not account for product units that are reserved for un-confirmedorders. Therefore, availability information from the ERP system 118 maybe supplemented with availability information received from the productreservation system at 520. Availability information received from theproduct reservation system 102 may account for reserved product units.It will be appreciated that, in various embodiments, the requestingsystem 114 may submit an order or request the reservation of aserialized product unit without first checking availability. If noproduct units are available, the requesting system 114 request may bedenied.

At 522, the requesting system 114 may request that a unit of aserialized product be reserved. The inventory interface system 124 mayreceive the request (524) and forward it to the product reservationsystem 102. In response to the reservation request, the productreservation system 102 may reserve a unit of the identified serializedproduct (e.g., by marking a status of the selected product unit at thedata store 116 as unavailable). Upon reserving the serialized productunit, the product reservation system 102 may send the serial identifierof the reserved unit to the requesting system 114 (e.g., via theinventory interface system 124). As described above, the requestingsystem 114 may utilize the serial identifier to, directly or indirectly,activate the reserved unit. According to various embodiments, theinventory interface system 124 may implement business rules similar tothose described above in order to determine whether to reserve a productunit or units in response to the request.

At 528, the requesting system 114 may generate an order including thereserved unit, which may be received by the inventory interface system504. For example, the order generated at 528 may indicate the serialidentifier of the product unit reserved by the product reservationsystem 508 at 526. It will be appreciated that the order may alsospecify products other than the reserved serialized product unitincluding, for example, other serialized product units, one or morenon-reserved products (e.g., non-serialized products, non-reservedserialized products, etc.). According to various embodiments, thereservation request action 522 and order creation action 528 may beperformed and transmitted simultaneously (e.g., the order may serve asthe reservation request). In some embodiments, the order confirmationaction 532 may also occur simultaneously with the reservation requestaction 522 and the order creation action 528.

At 530, the requesting system 114 may confirm all or a portion of theorder (e.g., if the activation of the serialized product unit issuccessful). The order confirmation may be provided to the ERP system118, which may generate a fulfillment instruction or pick instructionfor the order at 534. The fulfillment instruction may be provided to thewarehouse control system 104, which may allocate the order to one ormore inventory bins 110 and/or identify the number and type of shippingcartons to be used at 536. At 538, the warehouse control system 104 maymanage the picking of non-serialized products and non-reservedserialized products, if any, that are identified by the order. At 540,the product reservation system 102 may manage the picking of serializedproducts, including the identified serialized product unit. For example,if the identified serialized product unit is stored at a robotaccessible inventory bin, the product reservation system 102 may pickthe unit by instructing the robot 108 to perform the pick (542). If theidentified serialized product unit is stored at a manual serializedproduct bin, then the product reservation system 102 may generate apaper or electronic pick instruction that may be provided to a manualpicker. According to various embodiments, the product reservation system102 may also receive scans from the manual picker indicating, forexample, the inventory bin that the unit is removed from, the unititself, and other information related to the pick in order to verifyaccuracy.

At 544, picked product units for the order may be shipped. For example,the warehouse control system 104 may manage shipping-related tasks suchas selecting an appropriate shipping carton or cartons, printingshipping labels and packing slips, handling quality control, etc. At546, 548 and 552 ship information related to the order may be updated atthe ERP system 118, the inventory interface system 124 and the productreservation system 102, respectively. A ship notification may beprovided to the requesting system 114 at 550. It will be appreciatedthat the shipping process may be organized or arranged in any suitablemanner. A more detailed example of the shipping process is providedbelow with reference to FIG. 10. Also, according to various embodiments,the system 100 and/or the system 100A may comprise a notification engineconfigured to provide an e-mail or other alert upon selectedoccurrences. For example, an alert may be sent when a order is received,when an order is confirmed, when an order is picked, when an order isshipped, etc. The recipient or recipients of the alert may include,personnel of the distributor entity 101, personnel of the customerentity, etc. Example events that may trigger an alert may include, forexample, when an order becomes pending, when an order is cancelled(either by the customer entity or the distributor entity 101), when anorder is entered into the ERP 118 or the customer ERP 120, when afulfillment or pick instruction for the order is generated, when thepicking of an order is completed, when an order is shipped, etc. Forexample, an alert sent when an order is shipped may indicate a packagecarrier and/or tracking number.

According to various embodiments, the system 100 (e.g., via the productreservation system 102 and/or inventory interface system 124) mayorganize and provide services to customers at differing levels ofgranularity. For example, customer business entities may be divided intocustomer units. Each customer unit may be provided with a dedicatedcatalog of products from the inventory that the customer unit may sellto purchasers. A catalog of products may comprise indications of eachproduct from the inventory that a customer unit is authorized to sell.The content of a customer unit's catalog (including the productspresent, an allowable sell-through rate, a number of product unitsavailable to the customer unit, etc.), may be provided to a customerunit via the requesting system 114. The products and quantity ofproducts available to a customer unit via the catalog may be determined,for example, based on agreements between the distributor entity 101 andthe customer unit, the discretion of the distributor entity 101 and/orthe customer unit etc.

Customer business entities may be divided into customer units in anysuitable way. In some embodiments, a customer business entity maycomprise multiple companies, with each company assigned a dedicatedcatalog of products from the inventory. For example, the customerbusiness entity may be a holding company and each company organizedunder the customer business entity may represent a separate entity ownedby the customer business entity, a separate line of business, etc. Also,according to various embodiments, one or more customer units maycomprise multiple applications. Each application may represent adifferent method for purchasers to purchase product items from theinventory. For example, different applications may represent differentrequesting systems 114, different methods of sale (e.g., on-line,in-store, telephone order, etc.). In embodiments where a customer unitcomprises physical retail locations, each location may be assigned aseparate location customer unit. Also, in some embodiments, physicallocation customer units may be divided into location/application units.For example, a first location/application unit at a physical locationmay be a kiosk located in a mobile telephone area of the physicallocation and may utilize a catalog limited to products related to mobiletelephones. A second location/application unit at the physical locationmay be a second kiosk located in a laptop/computer area of the physicallocation and may utilize a catalog limited to laptop and relatedproducts.

FIG. 5A is a chart illustrating one embodiment of a hierarchy 580 ofcustomer units. The organization 582 may correspond to a customer entityand may be the highest level customer unit. In the example shown in FIG.5A, the organization 582 comprises three companies 584, 586, 588. Eachcompany 584, 586, 588 may represent a company owned by the organization582, a subsidiary of the organization 582, a business unit of theorganization 582, etc. Companies 586 and 588 are shown without anysub-customer units, although these units 586, 588 may be assignedapplications, locations, etc. Company 584 may comprise one or moreapplications and/or locations, such as shown. Application 590 maycorrespond to a purchaser website, which may be or may interface with arequesting system 114. Application 592 may correspond to a call centerfor receiving purchaser orders. For example, automatic or humanoperators at the call center may utilize a requesting system 114 totransmit orders to the inventory interface 124, the product reservationsystem 102, etc. Locations 594, 596 may correspond to different physicallocations (e.g., retail stores, corporate offices, etc.).Location/Applications 598, 583, 585 may correspond to the possiblecombinations of locations and applications above. For example,application 592 may be supported by both locations 594 and 596.Accordingly, the hierarchy 580 may comprise two application/locationscorresponding to the application 592, an application/location 583corresponding to the combination of application 592 and location 594 andan application/location 583 corresponding to the combination of theapplication 592 and the location 596. Applicant 590 may only besupported at location 594 and, thus, may only have a singleapplication/location 598 corresponding to the combination. Eachapplication/location may be associated with a catalog 587, 589. Forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 5A, catalogs 587, 589 are specific to anapplication 590, 592. It will be appreciated, however, that locationcatalog constraints may also exist, bringing about a different catalogfor each application/location.

According to various embodiments, each customer unit catalog maycomprise a list of products making up the catalog. Catalogs may alsocomprise various other information about products including, forexample, descriptions of products as well as product prices. Eachproduct price may represent the price for the product charged by thecustomer unit to the purchasers. In embodiments where the requestingsystem 114 is implemented by the customer business entity (e.g., a unitof the customer business entity), catalog information such as productdescriptions and product prices may be stored at systems of the customerbusiness entity and modified by the customer business entity accordingto any suitable manner. In embodiments where the requesting system 114is implemented by the business entity 101 (and some embodiments wherethe requesting system 114 is implemented by the customer businessentity), catalog information may be stored by the product reservationsystem 102, the inventory interface system 124 or any other suitablecomponent of the system 100. According to various embodiments, customerunit catalogs may be hierarchal in nature. For example, a customerentity may be assigned a catalog comprising all products that may besold by customer units organized under the customer entity. Customerunit may add additional constraints, resulting in a unique calendar fordifferent customer units.

FIG. 5B illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of the maintenanceinterface 130 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4. The maintenance interface130 may be a user interface utilized, for example, by distributor entity101 administrative users 560 to maintain and/or modify various aspectsof the system 100, 100A. For example, the maintenance interface 130 maybe configured to manage aspects of interaction between the system 100,100A and the customer entity (e.g., via the one or more requestingsystems 114). As described above, such interaction may implicate theproduct reservation system 102, the inventory interface system 124, theERP 118, etc.

According to various embodiments, the maintenance interface 130 maycomprise a customer management tool 564. The customer management tool564 may provide functionality for adding, updating and changinginformation relating to customer business entities and componentcustomer units as utilized by one or more of the inventory interfacesystem 124, the product reservation system 102, the ERP system 118, etc.For example, an administrative user 560 may change informationdescribing one or more of the customer business entities or componentcustomer units utilizing the requesting system 114 or implementing theirown requesting systems 114. Such information may include, for example,organization information describing the specific customer entityimplementing or using a requesting system 114, company informationdescribing a company that owns or operates an organization, applicationinformation describing technical details of an interface between theproduct reservation system 102 or inventory interface system and arequesting system 114, etc.

A catalog maintenance tool 566 may provide functionality for managingvarious catalogs describing the inventory. According to variousembodiments, a master catalog may list all products of the inventoryoffered for sale. As described above, each customer business entityand/or component business unit may also have a dedicated customercatalog that lists all of the products of the inventory offered for saleto the customer entity or unit (e.g., and ultimately available for salefrom the customer entity or unit to the purchasers). The catalogmaintenance tool 566 may provide functionality that allowsadministrative users 560 to modify the master catalog or any customerunit catalogs, for example, by adding products, removing products,changing the description of products, changing the price of products(e.g., the price charged to purchasers by the customer unit), etc.

An order management tool 568 may provide functionality for managingorders placed, for example, to the inventory interface system 124 and/orthe product reservation system 102 by a requesting system 114. Forexample, the order management tool 568 may allow administrative users560 to view one or more orders. According to various embodiments, theorder management tool 568 may include functionality for sorting ordersaccording to any suitable criteria including, for example, by pendingstatus. In one example, the order management tool 568 may display ordersthat have serialized product units that are reserved, but have not yetbeen confirmed. Such orders may be sorted and/or filtered, for example,by product. The order management tool 568 may also have functionalityallowing administrative users to manipulate orders. For example, anadministrative user 560 may be able to use the order management tool toadd or cancel an order, add or cancel the reservation of a serializedproduct unit, etc.

A customer maintenance portal 570 may be directed to customer users 562and may allow the customer users 562 to maintain and/or modify aspectsof the interface between their customer business entities and the system100. For example, the customer maintenance portal 750 may providefunctionality allowing the customer users 562 to modify their customerunit catalog. Such modifications may include changing the price of aproduct (e.g., the price charged by the customer unit to the purchaser),changing the description of a product provided to a purchaser, etc.

A user maintenance tool 572 may comprise functionality for managingwhich users have access to different components of the maintenanceinterface 130. For example, an administrative user 560 may utilize theuser maintenance tool to modify the access rights of otheradministrative users 560 as well as various customer users 572. Certainusers 560, 562 may have access only to defined tools 564, 566, 568, 570,572, or defined functionality with certain tools. Authorization of users560, 572 may be handled by any suitable methods. Users 560, 562 may haveroles that determine their access to the various tools 564, 566, 568,570, 572. For example, customer users 562 may have a role with acustomer unit or units and may, therefore, may have access limited tocatalogs associated with that unit or units.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of the warehousefacility 106 of FIG. 1. The facility 106 may comprise inventory bins110, at least one robot 108, and packing/shipping stations 112. Theinventory bins 110 as well as the packing and shipping stations 112 maybe interconnected by a transport system 612. The transport system 612may be any type of product transport system suitable for moving productunits from one location to another. According to various embodiments,the transport system 612 may comprise one or more separate orinterconnected conveyors. FIG. 6 also illustrates the warehouse controlsystem 104 configured to manage the operation of the various othercomponents at the warehouse facility 106. According to variousembodiments, the functionality ascribed herein to the warehouse controlsystem 104 may be performed by the product reservation system 102 or anyother suitable system. For example, as described above, the picking ofserialized product units may be directly managed by the productreservation system 102, as described above with reference to FIGS. 4-5.

Inventory bins 110 may comprise multiple inventory bin types, forexample, based on the products that the bins are designed to storeand/or the methods by which the products are designed to be picked.According to various embodiments, the inventory bins 110 may compriserobot accessible bins 602, non-serialized product bins 606, non-reservedserialized product bins 608 and manual serialized product bins 610.Product units may be placed directly at a bin or, in variousembodiments, may be first placed in a tray or other intermediatecontainer. The tray may then be placed at the bin. The tray may be anysuitable container for holding the product unit.

The robot accessible bins 602 may be any kind of inventory bin that isaccessible to a robot, such as robot 108. The robot 108 may beconfigured to place product units at the bins 602 and retrieve productunits from the bins 602. According to various embodiments all or aportion of the robot accessible bins 602 may be utilized to storeserialized products. The robot 108 may comprise functionality forplacing and retrieving specified product units on demand. For example,each of the robot accessible bins 602 may be configured to hold a singleserialized product unit. During intake, the robot 108 may place eachproduct unit at a robot accessible bin 602. When the robot 108 isinstructed to pick a particular serialized product unit, it may recallthe bin 602 where the unit is stored, pick the unit from that bin 602,and place it on the transport system 612. In some embodiments, more thanone serialized product unit may be stored at each bin 602. For example,the robot 108 may comprise a scanner, camera or other functionalityallowing it to identify and pick an identified product unit from alocation 602 comprising multiple product units. Operation of the robot108 may be managed by the product reservation system 102 (as illustratedin FIGS. 4-5), the warehouse control system (as illustrated in FIGS. 1and 3), or any other component of the system 100.

Manual serialized product bins 610 may comprise serialized product unitsstocked for manual rather than robotic picking. For example, some or allof the serialized product units stocked at the facility may be assignedto the manual serialized product bins 610. Intake of serialized productunits to the bins 610 may be managed by the warehouse control system104. For example, the warehouse control system 104 may assign eachserialized product unit to a specific bin 610. According to variousembodiments, multiple product units may be assigned to each bin 610. Themaximum number of product units assigned to a given bin 610 may bedetermined to both minimize the number of bins 610 required and minimizethe amount of time required for manual pickers to identify a particularproduct unit within a bin 610. According to various embodiments, theproduct bins 610 may be optimized for human placement and picking. Forexample, the product bins 610 may be clustered at a height that anaverage manual picker can reach without excessive bending or stretching.For example, the product bins 610 may be clustered between two and sixfeet off of the floor.

Intake and picking of the manual serialized product bins 610 aredescribed below as being managed by the product reservation system 102(as illustrated in FIGS. 4-5). In some embodiments, however, intake andpicking of the manual serialized product bins may be managed by thewarehouse control system 104 (as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3). Duringintake, bin assignments made by the product reservation system 102 maybe communicated to manual pickers according to any suitable means. Forexample, the product reservation system 102 may generate one or morepaper or electronic placement instructions. Manual pickers may receivethe placement instructions, locate the indicated product unit or unitsand place the unit or units at a bin 610 identified by the ticket. Also,according to various embodiments, the manual pickers may be equippedwith a scanning device in electronic communication with the warehousecontrol system 104. The manual pickers may retrieve a product unitassigned to the bins 610 and scan it with the scanning device. Thescanning device may capture a unique identifier of the product unit(e.g., the serial identifier) and provide the identifier to thewarehouse control system 104. The product reservation system 102 mayreceive the identifier, and return to the scanning device an indicationof the appropriate bin 610. The scanning device may display theindication of the bin 610, which may prompt the manual picker to placethe product unit at the bin 610. According to various embodiments, themanual picker may scan the bin 610 and/or the product unit afterplacement, which may provide to the warehouse control system 104confirmation of the unit's location. According to various embodiments,manual pickers may initiate the placement process by scanning a productunit. The scan may be received by the product reservation system 102,which may return to the manual picker an indication of a manualserialized product bin 610 where the unit should be placed. The manualpicker may subsequently place the unit at the identified bin 610.

Also, according to various embodiments, serialized product units may beplaced at bins 610 according to product turn-over. For example, productshaving a high turn over may be stored at bins 610 located at abouteye-level, for faster picking and placement. Products having lowerturn-over may be stored at bins 610 that are higher or lower. Accordingto various embodiments, prior to generating the placement instruction,the product reservation system 102 may determine an expected turn-overrate for a product. For example, products may be classified as “A,” “B”and “C,” with each category corresponding to a different turn-overlevel. The bin 610 selected by the product reservation system 102 for agiven product unit may be determined based on the product turn-over rate(e.g., the products “A,” “B,” or “C” classification).

When a specific serialized product unit is to be picked, the productreservation system 102 may identify the bin 610 comprising the productunit. A paper or electronic pick instruction may be generated specifyingthe bin 610 and the serial identifier of the product unit. A manualpicker may receive the pick instruction, go to the bin 610, identify thespecified product unit at the bin 610, and place the specified productunit on the transport system 612. When the manual picker is equippedwith a scanning device, the picker may scan one or more of the bin 610and the product unit prior to placing the unit on the transport device612. This may provide verification to the product reservation system 102that the correct product unit has been picked and placed on thetransport system 612.

Non-serialized product bins 606 may be any kind of inventory bin.Because it is not necessary to match specific non-serialized productunits to specific orders, it may be practical to store multiplenon-serialized product units in a single bin 606. The non-serializedproduct units may be placed into and retrieved from bins 606 accordingto any suitable manual or automated method. When a non-serializedproduct is needed for an order, the warehouse control system 104 mayidentify a bin 606 comprising all or a portion of the quantity required.The system 104 may then generate a paper or electronic pick instruction,that is provided to a manual picker. The manual picker may pull aproduct unit from the identified bin 606 and place the unit on thetransport system. In some embodiments, the manual picker may scan theproduct unit with a scanning device prior to placing it on the transportsystem 612. This may provide the warehouse control system 104 withverification that a unit of the correct product has been picked. It willbe appreciated that non-serialized products may also be picked from bins606 by a robot or other automated device.

Non-reserved serialized product bins 608 may be any kind of product bins606 and may store non-reserved serialized products, or serializedproducts that may not be activated prior to sale. The bins 608 may bemanaged by the warehouse control system 104 in a manner similar to thenon-serialized product bins 606. This is because, like non-serializedproduct units, non-reserved serialized product units may not need to bespecifically matched to a given order. Accordingly, the non-reservedserialized product bins may be configured to comprise any suitablenumber of product units. The product units may be manually orautomatically placed to and picked from the bins 608, for example, in amanner similar to that described with respect to the non-serializedproduct bins 606.

Upon picking for an order, product units may be placed on the transportsystem 612. According to various embodiments, the warehouse controlsystem 104 may track product units on the transport system 612. Forexample, product units on the transport system may comprise acomputer-readable identifier that specifies one or both of a producttype and a unique serial identifier (e.g., for serialized productunits). Scanners or other sensors for reading the computer-readableidentifiers may be positioned at known locations on the transport system612. The scanners may sense the computer readable identifier of eachproduct unit passing by and provide the same to the warehouse controlsystem 104.

The warehouse control system 104 may utilize product unit trackinginformation to direct the transport system 612 to transport productunits corresponding to a given order to a specific packing station 618.For example, the transport system 612 may have various directing devicessuch as, for example, movable arms, rollers oriented orthogonal to thetrack direction, or other mechanical devices for directing product unitsoff of the transport system 612 and towards the specific packing station618. Once received at a packing station 618, the product unitscorresponding to an order may be manually and/or automaticallyconfirmed, packed into a shipping container, and then placed back on thetransport system 612 and directed towards a shipping station. At theshipping station 620, the shipping container may be manually orautomatically addressed and appropriate postage or shipping paymentinformation may be affixed thereto. The package may then be provided toa shipping provider for shipment.

It will be appreciated that not all warehouse facilities of the system100 may comprise all of the inventory bin types 602, 606, 608, 610 shownat the warehouse facility 106 in FIG. 6. For example, some warehousefacilities may only have one kind of serialized product bins (e.g.,manual 610 or robot accessible 602). Some warehouse facilities may lackone or more of the serialized product bins 602, 610, non-serializedproduct bins 606 or non-reserved serialized product bins 608. Forexample, it is possible that all products in the inventory may beserialized products (e.g., when serialized products are used for theftprevention). Also, it will be appreciated that some warehouse facilitiesmay include inventory bin types in addition to those shown in FIG. 6.

The process of picking product units for an order may generally bereferred to fulfilling the order. In various embodiments, however, orderfulfillment may encompass more than just unit picking including, forexample, shipping, quality control etc. The order fulfillment processmay be managed by one or more different components of the system 100.For example, although various actions related to fulfillment areindicated herein to be initiated by the warehouse control system 104 andthe product reservation system 102, respectively, it will be appreciatedthat any of the actions herein may managed by any component of thesystem 100.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow 700 that may beexecuted by the product reservation system 102 and/or the warehousecontrol system 104 to fulfill an order specifying at least onenon-serialized product and at least one serialized product stored at arobot-accessible bin 602. At 702, the product reservation system 102 mayreceive an indication that the order is ready for fulfillment. Thefulfillment indication may be received from the product reservationsystem 102, the ERP system 118, and/or the inventory interface system124. The order may have been confirmed by the requesting system 114prior to the fulfillment indication. Accordingly, the order and/or thefulfillment indication may specify a first unique product unit (e.g., bya unique serial identifier). In addition, the order and/or thefulfillment indication may specify at least one of a firstnon-serialized product.

The product reservation system 102 may, at 704, determine anon-serialized product bin 606 that contains units of the non-serializedproduct specified by the order. At 706, the product reservation system102 may generate a pick or fulfillment instruction for thenon-serialized product. The pick instruction may initiate a manual orautomated pick from the identified non-serialized product bin 606. For amanual pick, the fulfillment instruction may be provided in paper orelectronic for to a manual picker. The instruction may indicate a unitquantity of the non-serialized product to be picked, as well as theidentified bin 606. The manual picker may pick the indicated unitquantity from the bin 606 and place it on the transport system 612. Foran automated pick, the fulfillment instruction may be provided to arobot or other automated picking device, which may cause the indicatedunit quantity from the bin 606 to be placed on the transport system 612.According to various embodiments, the product reservation system 102 orwarehouse control system 102 may receive an indication when theindicated quantity of the non-serialized product is placed on thetransport system 612. For example, a manual picker may utilize ascanning device to scan the indicated quantity before placing it on thetransport system 612. Also, for example, the transport system 612 maycomprise one or more sensors for sensing the presence of the indicatedquantity of the non-serialized product on the transport system 612. Theproduct reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104may, at 708, instruct the transport system 612 to transport theindicated quantity of the serialized product to a selected packingstation 618. For example, when the indicated quantity passes within apredetermined proximity of the packing station 618, a directing devicemay be deployed to push the quantity to the packing station 618, eithercollectively or one at a time.

At 710, the product reservation system 102 may instruct the robot 108 toretrieve the identified serialized product unit from the robotaccessible bins 602. According to various embodiments, the instructionto the robot 108 may indicate the serialized product unit (e.g., by itsunique serial identifier). The robot 108 may locate the bin 602comprising the serialized product unit, pull the serialized product unitfrom the bin 602 and place it on the transport system 612. In someembodiments, the product reservation system 102 may provide the robot108 with the bin 602 containing the identified product unit in additionto or instead of its serial identifier. The product reservation system102 and/or the warehouse control system 104 may additionally instructthe transport system 612 to move the picked serialized product unit tothe packing station 618, which may be the same packing station that thenon-serialized product was sent to. Subsequently, the warehouse controlsystem 104 may manage the shipping of the order, for example, asdescribed herein.

FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 illustrate one embodiment of a generalized processflow 800 for fulfilling orders at one or more warehouse facilities 106that comprise robot accessible bins 602, non-serialized product bins606, non-reserved serialized product bins 608 and manual serializedproduct bins 610. It will be appreciated that the process flow 800 maybe adapted to handle one or more warehouse facilities 106 that compriseadditional bin-types as well as those that contain less than all of thebin-types 602, 606, 608, 610. For example, to omit a bin-type, theprocess actions related to the bin-type to be omitted may not beperformed. Also, the description of the process flow 800 provided belowmay indicate that certain actions are performed by manual actors and/orcomponents of the system 100. These are examples only and that variousactions of the process flow 800 may alternatively be performed by othercomponents. Also, although certain actions of the process flow 600 areindicated to be performed by specific components of the system 100, itwill be appreciated that the functionality described by the process flow600 may be distributed among components of the system 100 in anysuitable way.

Referring now to FIG. 8, the product reservation system 102 and/orwarehouse control system 104 may receive an order confirmation at 802.The order confirmation may indicate that all or a portion of an orderreceived from the requesting system 114 is confirmed and ready to befulfilled. Receiving the order confirmation may be the equivalent ofreceiving the order fulfillment indication at 702 above. At 804, theproduct reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104may generate an order fulfillment instruction. The order fulfillmentinstruction may indicate, for example, all products to be picked for theorder, which may include, for example, serialized products,non-serialized products, and/or non-reserved serialized products. Theorder fulfillment instruction may have a line or entry for each unit ofa serialized product specified by the original order. For example, if anorder specifies three units of a first serialized product and one unitof a second serialized product, then the order fulfillment instructionmay comprise three entries for the first serialized product and oneentry for the second serialized product. The order fulfillmentinstruction may also comprise a line or entry for non-serialized productand each non-reserved serialized product from the order. Each serializedproduct unit entry in the order fulfillment instruction may comprise anindication of the unique serial identifier of a product unit associatedwith the line.

At 806, the product reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse controlsystem 104 may determine if all serialized product unit entries of theorder fulfillment instruction are properly associated with a uniqueproduct unit (e.g., via a unique serial identifier). If there is aproblem with the association between a serialized product unit entry onthe order fulfillment instruction and a unique serial identifier, it maybe addressed at 808. Addressing such a problem may include, for example,correcting a typographical error, retrieving and adding to the orderfulfillment instruction a serial identifier that was originally omitted,reserving a new serialized product item and transmitting its serialidentifier to the requesting system 114 for activation, etc.

Provided that all serialized product units identified by the orderfulfillment instruction are verified, the product reservation system 102and/or the warehouse control system 104 may allocate to each orderfulfillment instruction entry a bin from which the identified unit orunits will be picked. For example, each entry of the order fulfillmentinstruction may be allocated to an inventory bin 110. The allocated binfor an entry may be written to the entry. Serialized product unitentries at the order fulfillment instruction may be allocated to eithera robot-accessible bin 602 or a manual serialized product bin 610,depending on the location of the identified unit. Non-serialized productentries may be allocated to non-serialized product bins 606, andnon-reserved serialized product entries may be allocated to non-reservedserialized product bins 608. It will be appreciated that non-serializedproduct entries and non-reserved serialized product entries may beallocated to multiple bins. For example, if a single bin includes fewerunits than the quantity indicated by an entry, the entry may beallocated to more than one bin. A record of the allocation may begenerated at 812. Also, in some embodiments, the allocation of 810 maycomprise assigning an order fulfillment instruction entry to a tray forpicking. For example, it will be appreciated that, depending on size andother factors, multiple product units may be placed in a single tray forpicking and shipping.

At 814, the product reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse controlsystem 104 may derive a packing method for the order fulfillmentinstruction. The packing method may specify details describing how theproducts identified by the fulfillment order will be shipped including,for example, the number of cartons into which the order will divided,the product units that will be in each package, the method of shipping,etc. A record of the determined packing method may be generated at 816.Place holder 818 shows how the process flow 800 transitions from theactions shown at FIG. 8 to the actions shown at FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a portion 801 of the process flow800 for picking products identified by the order fulfillmentinstruction. At 820, the product reservation system 102 and/or thewarehouse control system 104 may determine if a non-robot pick isrequired to meet the order fulfillment instruction. For example, if theinstruction has an entry with a product unit not corresponding to arobot accessible bin 602, then a non-robot pick may be required.Provided that a non-robot pick is required, the product reservationsystem 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104 may generate anon-robot pick instruction at 822. For example, a portion of thenon-robot pick instruction corresponding to manual serialized productbins may be generated by the product reservation system 102, while aportion of the non-robot pick instruction corresponding tonon-serialized products or non-reserved serialized products may begenerated by the warehouse control system 104 (as illustrated in FIGS.4-5). According to various embodiments, multiple non-robot pickinstructions may be generated with one corresponding to serializedproducts and one corresponding to non-serialized and non-reservedserialized products. The non-robot pick instruction may be a paper orelectronic indication of each product or product unit having an entry inthe order fulfillment instruction that has been allocated to a non-robotinventory bin. According to various embodiments, the non-robot pickinstruction may also comprise an assignment of the non-robot productunits to one or more trays for picking. The non-robot pick instructionmay be displayed to a manual picker at 824.

At 826, the manual picker may obtain a first empty tray. At 828, it maybe determined if the non-robot pick instruction recites any non-reservedserialized units assigned to the first tray. If so, the manual pickermay perform actions 830, 832, 834, 836, 838 for some or all of thenon-reserved serialized product units identified by the non-robot pickinstruction. At 830, the manual picker may scan a first non-reservedserialized product-type. For example, each inventory bin may comprise anindication of the product-type stored therein. Scanning the non-reservedserialized product-type may involve scanning this indication on theinventory bin. At 832, the manual picker may scan the inventory bin(e.g. a non-reserved serialized product bin 608) from which the productunit was picked. At 834, the manual picker may indicate the quantity ofnon-reserved serialized units picked from the bin. At 836, the manualpicker may scan the serial identifiers of each picked product unit. Allpicked product units may be placed in the first tray, which may bescanned at 838. The information scanned at 830, 832, 834 and 838 may beprovided to the warehouse control system to verify the accuracy of thepick at 862. If additional non-reserved serialized are indicated by thenon-robot pick instruction as being allocated to the first tray, actions830, 832, 834, 836 and 838 may be repeated for each additional unit.

At 840, it may be determined if the non-robot pick instruction recitesany manual-pick serialized product units assigned to the first tray. Ifso, actions 842, 844, 846, 848 and 850 may be performed for each recitedserialized product unit. At 842, the manual picker may scan the parttype corresponding to a first recited serialized product unit. At 844,the manual picker may scan the manual serialized bin 610 indicated bythe non-robot pick instruction to contain the identified serializedproduct unit. At 846, the manual picker may specify the quantity ofunits to be picked, which will often be one. At 848, the manual pickermay scan the serial identifier of the unit. The manual picker may thenplace the identified serialized product unit in the first tray and scanthe first tray at 850. The information obtained at 842, 844, 846, 848and 850 may be provided to the product reservation system 102 and/or thewarehouse control system 104 to verify the accuracy of the pick at 862.If the non-robot pick instruction indicates that an additional manualserialized product units are allocated to the first tray, actions 842,844, 846, 848, 850 may be repeated for each additional unit.

At 852, it may be determined if the non-robot pick instruction recitesany non-serialized products. If so, the manual picker may performactions 854, 856, 858 and 860 for each product. At 854, the manualpicker may scan a product-type identifier for the product. At 856, themanual picker may scan the inventory bin or bins identified by thenon-robot pick instruction as including the specified non-serializedproduct units. At 858, the manual picker may specify the quantity ofunits picked and placed in the first tray. At 860, the manual picker mayplace the units in the first tray and scan the first tray. Again, theinformation obtained from the scans at 854, 846, 858, 860 may beprovided to the warehouse control system 104 to verify the accuracy ofthe pick at 862. If the non-robot pick instruction specifies additionalnon-serialized units to be included in the first tray, actions 854, 856,858, 860 may be repeated for each additional product.

When all product units assigned by the non-robot pick instruction to thefirst tray are placed in the first tray, the first tray may be placed onthe transport system 612, at 864. After placement on the transportsystem 612, the first tray may be manually or automatically scanned at866. This may provide the warehouse control system 104 with anindication of a location of the first tray on the transport system 612.At 868, the warehouse control system 104 may refer to the non-robot pickinstruction to pull details describing the scanned tray. If the scannedtray is the first tray associated with the order fulfillment instruction(870), then the warehouse control system 104 may store, at 872, anindication that picking of the order has begun. If the scanned tray isnot the last tray associated with the non-robot pick instruction (874),then an additional empty tray may be pulled at 826 and the process mayrepeat. If the scanned tray is the last tray associated with thenon-robot pick instruction (874), then the warehouse control system 104and/or the product reservation system 102 may instruct the robot 108 toretrieve all serialized product units having entries in the orderfulfillment instruction that indicate robot accessible bins (e.g., arobot pick instruction). According to various embodiments, each productunit may be stored at the robot accessible bins in a tray. To retrieve aproduct unit, the robot 108 may retrieve the associated tray and placeit on the transport system. At 882, the warehouse control system 104 mayinstruct the transport system 612 to direct all of the trays associatedwith the order fulfillment instruction to one or more packing stations.Circle 884 indicates a transition to a portion of the process flow 800shown in FIG. 10.

Referring back to 820, if the order fulfillment instruction recites onlyrobot picks, then the product reservation system 102 and/or thewarehouse control system 104 may send a robot pick instruction to therobot 108 at 880. The robot 108 may process the robot pick instructionat 878, and retrieve all product units indicated by the robot pickinstruction at 876.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a portion 803 of the process flow800 illustrating the packing and shipping of an order. Recall that at882, all of the trays associated with the order fulfillment instructionwere staged at one or more packing stations. At 886, the first trayassociated with the order fulfillment instruction may be scanned. Theorder fulfillment instruction may be retrieved and, in manualembodiments, displayed to a manual packer at 888. At 889, product unitsmay be removed from the first tray one at a time. Actions 892, 894, 896,and 900 may be performed for each non-serialized or non-reservedserialized product and for each serialized product unit in the firsttray. At 892, a carton label corresponding to the shipping carton thatwill contain the product unit may be scanned. At 894, a part-type of theunit may be scanned. At 896, the label may be scanned again. At 898, thequantity of the product may be indicated. At 900, the serial identifiermay be scanned (e.g., if the product is serialized). If an additionalshipping carton is required, an additional shipping carton label may begenerated at 902.

Once all of the units assigned by the order fulfillment instruction tothe first carton have been scanned, the first carton may be packed at904. According to various embodiments, order and/or product itemcustomization may also be performed prior to or during packing. Forexample, when the product item is a piece of hardware, customization maycomprise loading one or more software applications to the hardware.Customization may also comprise the addition of customer entity and/orproduct specific marketing materials, instructions, etc. The productreservation system 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104 maydetermine if any additional robot trays remain (906). If so, it may bedetermined if any post-robot picks are required (912). A post-robot pickmay be a pick of an often non-serialized product that may be located inthe shipping area. Products for post-robot picking may include, forexample, brochures, promotional products, etc. If a post-robot pick isrequired, it may be performed at 914. The post-robot pick may beprocessed for packing at actions 892, 894, 896, 898 and 900 asdescribed. If no post-robot pick is necessary (912), or if not all robottrays are completed (906), then the warehouse control system 908 maydetermine if additional trays from the order fulfillment instructionremain unprocessed (908). If so, at 910, the next tray may be scannedand then processed as described above.

If no additional trays remain, then the warehouse control system 104 maycomplete the order at 916. Completing the order may comprise sending anindication to the product reservation system 102 and/or the ERP system118 indicating that the order has been picked and packed. At 918, thewarehouse control system 104 may cause a packing slip to be printed andaffixed to each carton corresponding to the order. Suitable qualityassurance actions may be taken at 920. For example, each carton, or asampling of cartons, may be opened and its contents verified. It will beappreciated that although various actions described with reference tothe process flow 800 shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 are performed by manualpickers, these actions may also be automated, for example, utilizing oneor more robots.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a floor area1100 of a warehouse facility 106 comprising a robotic picking line. Thefloor area 1100 may comprise robot accessible bin units 1114, 1116, eachcomprising robot accessible bins. One or more robot arms 1126 may bepositioned and configured to place product units to and pick productunits from the robot accessible bins. Although the robot implementationshown in FIG. 11 comprises robot arms 1126, it will be appreciated thatany suitable automated picking device maybe used. An intake station 1103may receive serialized product items to be placed by the robot arms1126. The floor area 1100 may also comprise packing stations 1118 andshipping stations 1128. An intake product transport system 1108, anintake transport system 1110, an intermediate transport system 1112 anda outflow transport system 1122 may collectively make up the transportsystem 612 for transporting products among the robot-accessible binunits 1114, 1116, packing stations 1118, and shipping stations 1128.Input stations 1120 may be positioned proximate the product transportsystem 1110 and may be configured to receive picked product units fromnon-robot inventory bins. Operation of the floor area 1100 may bemanaged by one or more computer systems. For example, the warehousecontrol system 104 may generally direct the operation of the floor area1100 as described herein above. The operation of the robot arms 1126 mayalso be controlled by one or more computer systems. For example, a robotcontrol system 1102 may direct the robot arms 1126. According to variousembodiments, each robot arm 1126 may comprise an arm-specific computersystem 1104, 1106, for example, to control fine motions of the arms 1126

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of a portion of the floor area 1100showing a robot arm 1126 in additional detail. A portion of theintermediate transport system 1112 is illustrated running between robotaccessible bin units 1116, 1114. The robot arm 1126 is illustrated withan extendible arm portion 1202 comprising an picking implement (notshown) for picking and placing product units and/or trays comprisingproduct units. The picking implement may be any suitable mechanicaldevice for securing trays and/or product units including, for example, ajaw, a claw, a hand, a magnet, a suction device, etc. The robot arm 1126may be translatable along a rail 1204. For example, the robot arm 1126may be translatable in the directions of arrows 1208 and 1206. In thisway, the robot arm 1126 may be capable of reaching robot accessible binslocated at different spatial locations within the robot accessible binunits 1116, 1114.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of the intake station 1103 of thefloor area 1100 showing additional details of, for example, the intakeproduct transport system 1108 and the intake transport system 1110. FIG.14 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow 1400 for inductingproduct units into the robot accessible bins 602 via the intake station1103. The process flow 1400 is described herein with reference to FIGS.11, 12, 13 and 14. Also, as described herein, the actions of the processflow 1400 are performed by the product reservation system 102. Accordingto various embodiments, however, some or all of the actions of theprocess flow 1400 may be performed by the warehouse control system 104,one or more of the robot control computer systems 1102, 1104, 1106, etc.

At 1402, the product reservation system 102 may receive a uniqueindication of a first tray 1306 on the intake transport system 1110. Forexample, the indication may be received from an intake sensor 1308positioned to scan a bar code or other computer readable trayidentifier. The intake sensor 1308, according to various embodiments,may have a field of view directed towards the intake transport 1110 suchthat the tray 1306 falls within the field of view. The tray 1306 may bemanually or automatically placed on the intake transport system 1110. At1404, the product reservation system 102 may receive an indication of afirst serialized product unit 1304 on the product intake transport 1108.For example, a product sensor 1113 present at a known location on theproduct intake transport 1108 may sense (e.g., via a bar code or othercomputer readable indicator) the unique serial identifier of theserialized product unit 1304. The product sensor 1113, according tovarious embodiments, may have a field of view directed towards theproduct intake transport 1108 such that the serialized product unit 1304falls within the field of view. The product reservation system 102 mayderive a location of the product unit 1304 on the product intaketransport 1108, for example, based on the reading from the productsensor 1113. Also, according to various embodiments, the producttransport system 1108 may comprise one or more delineated locations1302. An intake monitoring system 1112 may provide an indication to amanual worker an indication to place the product unit 1304 at thedelineated location 1302. The product reservation system 102 may trackthe location of the unit 1304 based on the known location of thedelineated location 1302 and/or based on input from an intake transportsystem sensor (not shown) positioned to sense a position of the intaketransport system 1108.

At 1406, the product reservation system 102 may associate the first tray1306 with the first serialized product unit 1304, for example, bystoring an association between the unit's unique serial identifier andthe unique indication of the first tray 1306. At 1408, the productreservation system 102 may instruct the product transport system 1108and the intake transport system 1110 to place the first serializedproduct unit 1304 into the tray 1306. This process may occur accordingto any suitable method. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 13, theproduct transport system 1108 may be positioned above the intaketransport system 1110. Accordingly, when the unit 1304 reaches an end ofthe product transport system 1108, it may fall into the tray 1306, asshown. Placing the first serialized product unit 1304 into the tray 1306may comprise positioning the product transport system 1108 and theintake transport system 1110 such that the tray 1306 is positioned tocatch the unit 1304 at the end of the product transport system 1108, asillustrated in FIG. 13.

At 1410, the product reservation system 102 may instruct the robot toplace the tray 1306 (and also the first serialized product unit 1304) ata robot accessible bin. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 11, afterthe tray 1306 is placed on the intake transport system 1110, it may betransported to the intermediate transport system 1112, which may takethe tray 1306 between the robot accessible bin units 1114, 1116. There,one of the robot arms 1126 may pick up the tray 1306 and place it at oneof the robot accessible locations 602. According to various embodiments,the instruction to the robot may also comprise an indication of theturn-over rate of the product associated with the product 1304 presentat the tray 1306. The robot may utilize this information to place thetray 1306 within the robot accessible bins. For example, trays 1306comprising product units 1304 having a high turn-over may be stored atbins that may be easily accessible by the robot. Trays 1306 comprisingproduct units 1304 having lower turn-over may be stored at bines thatare not as quickly or easily accessible. According to variousembodiments, product units 1304 may be classified into three categoriesbased on availability. An “A” category may indicate product units 1304having the highest turn-over. A “B” category may indicate product units1304 having an intermediate turn-over rate. A “C” category may indicateproduct units 1304 having a low turn-over rate.

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of a process flow 1500 for picking,packing and shipping an order specifying a serial product unit. Theprocess flow 1500 is described as being performed by the productreservation system 102. It will be appreciated, however, that some orall of the actions of the process flow 1500 may be performed by othersystems including, for example, the warehouse control system 104, theERP system 118, the robot control systems 1102, 1104, 1106, etc. At1502, the product reservation system 102 may receive and/or generate anorder fulfillment instruction. The order fulfillment instruction maycomprise an entry for a serial product that specifies the serialidentifier of the unit 1304 of the serial product. At 1504, the productreservation system 102 may instruct the robot to retrieve the tray 1306including the serial product unit 1304. Accordingly, one of the robotarms 1126 may translate on the rail 1204 to a location corresponding tothe inventory bin comprising the tray 1306. The robot arm 1126 mayretrieve the tray and place it on the intermediate transport system1112.

At 1506, the product reservation system 102 and/or the warehouse controlsystem 104 may instruct the transport system 1112 to transport the tray1306 to a packing station 1118. For example, after being placed in theintermediate transport system 1112, the system 1112 may rotatecounter-clockwise (relative to FIG. 11) moving the tray 1306 to thepacking stations 1118. When the tray 1306 is adjacent a selected packingstation, the intermediate transport system 1112 may deploy a directingdevice to move divert the tray toward the packing station 1118. Thedirecting device may be, for example, an arm positioned to swing acrossthe intermediate transport system 1112, a set of rollers positioned toroll orthogonal to the direction of motion of the system 1112 andtowards the packing station 1118, etc. At 1508, the product reservationsystem 102 and/or the warehouse control system 104 may receive anindication that an order including the unit 1304 is packed. For example,after the unit 1304 is packed into a carton, the carton may be placed onan outflow transport system 1122 which may direct the carton towards oneor more shipping stations 1128. Upon receipt of the indication that theunit 1304 is packed for shipping, the product reservation system 102and/or the warehouse control system 104 may generate a ship instructionat 1510. The ship instruction may be result in a shipping label beinggenerated and applied to the carton at labeling device 1124. Accordingto various embodiments, the tray 1306 and unit 1304 may be processed forpacking and shipping as described above with respect to the packingportion 803 of the process flow 800 described above.

Different computer systems 100, 102, 104, 118, 114, 120, 1102, 1104,1106 are described herein as communicating with one another. It will beappreciated that this communication may take place in any suitablemethod. For example, according to various embodiments, some or all ofthe computer systems described herein may be in communication with oneanother via a network or networks. The network or networks may operateaccording to any suitable wired or wireless communication protocol andmay utilize any suitable hardware or software. In some embodiments, thenetwork or networks may include, a wide area network (WAN) such as theInternet, a local area network (LAN), etc.

Although the functions described herein are described in terms ofmultiple computer systems (e.g., product reservation system 102,warehouse control system 104, enterprise resource planning system 118,etc.), it will be appreciated than any of the functionality of these orother systems may be distributed across more or fewer physical computersystems. Also, according to various embodiments, any of the variouscomputer systems herein may be implemented as multiple computer systems.For example, different computer systems may manage different types ofinventory bins.

The examples presented herein are intended to illustrate potential andspecific implementations of the present invention. It can be appreciatedthat the examples are intended primarily for purposes of illustration ofthe invention for those skilled in the art. No particular aspect oraspects of the examples are necessarily intended to limit the scope ofthe present invention. For example, no particular aspect or aspects ofthe examples of system architectures, methods or processing structuresdescribed herein are necessarily intended to limit the scope of theinvention.

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for purposes of clarity, other elements. Those of ordinary skill in theart will recognize, however, that these sorts of focused descriptionswould not facilitate a better understanding of the present invention,and therefore, a more detailed description of such elements is notprovided herein.

In various embodiments, modules or software can be used to practicecertain aspects of the invention. For example, software-as-a-service(SaaS) models or application service provider (ASP) models may beemployed as software application delivery models to communicate softwareapplications to clients or other users. Such software applications canbe downloaded through an Internet connection, for example, and operatedeither independently (e.g., downloaded to a laptop or desktop computersystem) or through a third-party service provider (e.g., accessedthrough a third-party web site). In addition, cloud computing techniquesmay be employed in connection with various embodiments of the invention.

Moreover, the processes associated with the present embodiments may beexecuted by programmable equipment, such as computers. Software or othersets of instructions that may be employed to cause programmableequipment to execute the processes. The processes may be stored in anystorage device, such as, for example, a computer system (non-volatile)memory, an optical disk, magnetic tape, or magnetic disk. Furthermore,some of the processes may be programmed when the computer system ismanufactured or via a computer-readable memory medium.

It can also be appreciated that certain process aspects described hereinmay be performed using instructions stored on a computer-readable memorymedium or media that direct a computer or computer system to performprocess steps. A computer-readable medium may include, for example,memory devices such as diskettes, compact discs of both read-only andread/write varieties, optical disk drives, and hard disk drives. Acomputer-readable medium may also include memory storage that may bephysical, virtual, permanent, temporary, semi-permanent and/orsemi-temporary.

A “computer,” “computer system,” “host,” “engine,” or “processor” maybe, for example and without limitation, a processor, microcomputer,minicomputer, server, mainframe, laptop, personal data assistant (PDA),wireless e-mail device, cellular phone, pager, processor, fax machine,scanner, or any other programmable device configured to transmit and/orreceive data over a network. Computer systems and computer-based devicesdisclosed herein may include memory for storing certain softwareapplications used in obtaining, processing, and communicatinginformation. It can be appreciated that such memory may be internal orexternal with respect to operation of the disclosed embodiments. Thememory may also include any means for storing software, including a harddisk, an optical disk, floppy disk, ROM (read only memory), RAM (randomaccess memory), PROM (programmable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasablePROM) and/or other computer-readable memory media.

In various embodiments of the present invention, a single component maybe replaced by multiple components, and multiple components may bereplaced by a single component, to perform a given function orfunctions. Except where such substitution would not be operative topractice embodiments of the present invention, such substitution iswithin the scope of the present invention. Any of the servers orcomputer systems described herein, for example, may be replaced by a“server farm” or other grouping of networked servers (e.g., a group ofserver blades) that are located and configured for cooperativefunctions. It can be appreciated that a server farm may serve todistribute workload between/among individual components of the farm andmay expedite computing processes by harnessing the collective andcooperative power of multiple servers. Such server farms may employload-balancing software that accomplishes tasks such as, for example,tracking demand for processing power from different machines,prioritizing and scheduling tasks based on network demand, and/orproviding backup contingency in the event of component failure orreduction in operability.

Various embodiments of the systems and methods described herein mayemploy one or more electronic computer networks to promote communicationamong different components, transfer data, or to share resources andinformation. Such computer networks can be classified according to thehardware and software technology that is used to interconnect thedevices in the network, such as optical fiber, Ethernet, wireless LAN,HomePNA, power line communication or G.hn. The computer networks mayalso be embodied as one or more of the following types of networks:local area network (LAN); metropolitan area network (MAN); wide areanetwork (WAN); virtual private network (VPN); storage area network(SAN); or global area network (GAN), among other network varieties.

For example, a WAN computer network may cover a broad area by linkingcommunications across metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries.The network may use routers and/or public communication links. One typeof data communication network may cover a relatively broad geographicarea (e.g., city-to-city or country-to-country) which uses transmissionfacilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone serviceproviders. In another example, a GAN computer network may support mobilecommunications across multiple wireless LANs or satellite networks. Inanother example, a VPN computer network may include links between nodescarried by open connections or virtual circuits in another network(e.g., the Internet) instead of by physical wires. The link-layerprotocols of the VPN can be tunneled through the other network. One VPNapplication can promote secure communications through the Internet. TheVPN can also be used to separately and securely conduct the traffic ofdifferent user communities over an underlying network. The VPN mayprovide users with the virtual experience of accessing the networkthrough an IP address location other than the actual IP address whichconnects the access device to the network.

Computer networks may include hardware elements to interconnect networknodes, such as network interface cards (NICs) or Ethernet cards,repeaters, bridges, hubs, switches, routers, and other like components.Such elements may be physically wired for communication and/or dataconnections may be provided with microwave links (e.g., IEEE 802.12) orfiber optics, for example. A network card, network adapter or NIC can bedesigned to allow computers to communicate over the computer network byproviding physical access to a network and an addressing system throughthe use of MAC addresses, for example. A repeater can be embodied as anelectronic device that receives and retransmits a communicated signal ata boosted power level to allow the signal to cover a telecommunicationdistance with reduced degradation. A network bridge can be configured toconnect multiple network segments at the data link layer of a computernetwork while learning which addresses can be reached through whichspecific ports of the network. In the network, the bridge may associatea port with an address and then send traffic for that address only tothat port. In various embodiments, local bridges may be employed todirectly connect local area networks (LANs); remote bridges can be usedto create a wide area network (WAN) link between LANs; and/or, wirelessbridges can be used to connect LANs and/or to connect remote stations toLANs.

In various embodiments, a hub may be employed which contains multipleports. For example, when a data packet arrives at one port of a hub, thepacket can be copied unmodified to all ports of the hub fortransmission. A network switch or other devices that forward and filterOSI layer 2 datagrams between ports based on MAC addresses in datapackets can also be used. A switch can possess multiple ports, such thatmost of the network is connected directly to the switch, or anotherswitch that is in turn connected to a switch. The term “switch” can alsoinclude routers and bridges, as well as other devices that distributedata traffic by application content (e.g., a Web URL identifier).Switches may operate at one or more OSI model layers, includingphysical, data link, network, or transport (i.e., end-to-end). A devicethat operates simultaneously at more than one of these layers can beconsidered a multilayer switch. In certain embodiments, routers or otherlike networking devices may be used to forward data packets betweennetworks using headers and forwarding tables to determine an optimumpath through which to transmit the packets.

As employed herein, an application server may be a server that hosts anAPI to expose business logic and business processes for use by otherapplications. Examples of application servers include J2EE or Java EE 5application servers including WebSphere Application Server. Otherexamples include WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (IBM),Sybase Enterprise Application Server (Sybase Inc), WebLogic Server(BEA), JBoss (Red Hat), JRun (Adobe Systems), Apache Geronimo (ApacheSoftware Foundation), Oracle OC4J (Oracle Corporation), Sun Java SystemApplication Server (Sun Microsystems), and SAP Netweaver AS (ABAP/Java).Also, application servers may be provided in accordance with the .NETframework, including the Windows Communication Foundation, .NETRemoting, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET among several other components. Forexample, a Java Server Page (JSP) is a servlet that executes in a webcontainer which is functionally equivalent to CGI scripts. JSPs can beused to create HTML pages by embedding references to the server logicwithin the page. The application servers may mainly serve web-basedapplications, while other servers can perform as session initiationprotocol servers, for instance, or work with telephony networks.Specifications for enterprise application integration andservice-oriented architecture can be designed to connect many differentcomputer network elements. Such specifications include BusinessApplication Programming Interface, Web Services Interoperability, andJava EE Connector Architecture.

Any patent, publication, or other disclosure material, in whole or inpart, that is said to be incorporated by reference herein isincorporated herein only to the extent that the incorporated materialsdoes not conflict with existing definitions, statements, or otherdisclosure material set forth in this disclosure. As such, and to theextent necessary, the disclosure as explicitly set forth hereinsupersedes any conflicting material incorporated herein by reference.Any material, or portion thereof, that is said to be incorporated byreference herein, but which conflicts with existing definitions,statements, or other disclosure material set forth herein will only beincorporated to the extent that no conflict arises between thatincorporated material and the existing disclosure material.

While various embodiments of the invention have been described herein,it should be apparent, however, that various modifications, alterationsand adaptations to those embodiments may occur to persons skilled in theart with the attainment of some or all of the advantages of the presentinvention. The disclosed embodiments are therefore intended to includeall such modifications, alterations and adaptations without departingfrom the scope and spirit of the present invention as set forth in theappended claims.

1. A system for managing an inventory comprising serialized products,the system comprising: an intake station, wherein the intake stationcomprises: a product transport system; an intake transport system; andan intake sensor having a field-of-view directed towards the intaketransport system and positioned such that items on the intake transportsystem fall within the field-of-view; a plurality of robot-accessiblebins; a robot programmed to load product units to the plurality ofrobot-accessible bins; and a computer system comprising at least oneprocessor and operatively associated electronic storage comprisinginstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe computer system to: receive from the intake sensor a first trayidentifier describing a first tray present on the intake transportsystem; associate the first tray identifier with a first serialidentifier of a first product unit of a first serialized product,wherein the first product unit is present on the product transportsystem; instruct the product transport system to transport the firstproduct unit to the first tray; and instruct the robot to place thefirst tray containing the first product unit at a first bin selectedfrom the plurality of robot-accessible bins.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the electronic storage further comprises instructions that, whenexecuted by the at least one processor, cause the computer system toderive a position of the first product unit on the product transportsystem.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the product transport systemcomprises a plurality of delineated locations, and wherein deriving theposition of the first product unit on the product transport systemcomprises: receiving data indicating that a first delineated location ofthe product transport system comprises a product unit having the firstserial identifier; and receiving data indicating a position of the firstdelineated location.
 4. The system of claim 2, further comprising aproduct sensor having a field-of-view directed towards the producttransport system and positioned such that items at a first position onthe product transport system fall within the field-of-view, and whereinderiving the position of the first product unit on the product transportsystem comprises receiving from the product sensor data describing thefirst serial identifier.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprising anoutflow transport system and a packing station, wherein the electronicstorage further comprises instructions that, when executed by the atleast one processor, cause the computer system to: receive a pickinstruction specifying the first serial identifier; instruct the robotto retrieve the first tray unit from the first robot-accessible bin andplace it on the outflow transport system, wherein the outflow transportsystem transports the first product unit to the packing station.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the electronic storage further comprisesinstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe computer system to instruct the outflow transport system to directthe first product unit to the packing station.
 7. The system of claim 5,further comprising a packing station, wherein the pick instruction alsospecifies a non-serialized product, and wherein the electronic storagefurther comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the computer system to: receive a second trayidentifier describing a second tray associated with at least one item ofthe non-serialized product; receive an indication that the second trayis present on the outflow transport system; instruct the outflowtransport system to transport the second tray to the packing station. 8.The system of claim 5, wherein the intake transport system and theoutflow transport system are components of a common transport system. 9.The system of claim 5, wherein the outflow transport system comprises atleast one conveyor.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the firstplurality of robot-accessible bins comprises no more than one serializedproduct unit.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the product transportsystem is positioned above the intake transport system, and whereintransporting the first product unit to the first tray comprises droppingthe first product unit from the product transport system to the tray onthe intake transport system.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein theintake transport system comprises at least one conveyor.
 13. The systemof claim 1, wherein instructing the robot to place the first traycontaining the first product unit at a first bin selected from theplurality of robot-accessible bins comprises providing the robot with anindication of a turn-over rate of the first serialized product.
 14. Amethod for managing an inventory comprising serialized products, themethod comprising: receiving, by a computer system and from an intakesensor a first tray identifier describing a first tray present on anintake transport system, wherein the computer system comprises at leastone processor and operatively associated memory; associating, by thecomputer system, the first tray identifier with a first serialidentifier of a first product unit of a first serialized product,wherein the first product unit is present on the product transportsystem; instructing the product transport system, by the computersystem, to transport the first product unit to the first tray; andinstructing a robot, by the computer system, to place the first traycontaining the first product unit at a first bin selected from aplurality of robot-accessible bins.
 15. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising deriving, by the computer system, a position of the firstproduct unit on the product transport system.
 16. The method of claim15, wherein the product transport system comprises a plurality ofdelineated locations, and wherein deriving the position of the firstproduct unit on the product transport system comprises: receiving dataindicating that a first delineated location of the product transportsystem comprises a product unit having the first serial identifier; andreceiving data indicating a position of the first delineated location.17. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving, by thecomputer system and from a product sensor data describing the firstserial identifier.
 18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:receiving, by the computer system, a pick instruction specifying thefirst serial identifier; instructing the robot to retrieve the firsttray unit from the first robot-accessible bin and place it on an outflowtransport system, wherein the outflow transport system transports thefirst product unit to a packing station.
 19. The method of claim 18,further comprising instructing the outflow transport system, by thecomputer system, to direct the first product unit to the packingstation.
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the pick instruction alsospecifies a non-serialized product, and further comprising: receiving,by the computer system, a second tray identifier describing a secondtray associated with at least one item of the non-serialized product;receiving, by the computer system, an indication that the second tray ispresent on the outflow transport system; instructing the outflowtransport system, by the computer system, to transport the second trayto the packing station.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein instructingthe robot to place the first tray containing the first product unit at afirst bin selected from the plurality of robot-accessible bins comprisesproviding the robot with an indication of a turn-over rate of the firstserialized product.